My Take | The plight of Hong Kong’s itinerant hawkers needs to be reconsidered
- Street vendors are a part of the city’s culture. Instead of phasing them out, sensible policies should be put in place to ensure they can flourish
A “Happy Hong Kong” campaign, to help the city bounce back from the pandemic, will see the launch of a “gourmet marketplace” with food fairs across the city. The aim, we are told, is to bring joy to the community.
But one 90-year-old purveyor of food was most unhappy last week. Chan Tak-ching, who sells roasted chestnuts, was distraught when inspectors confiscated her cart. She may not get it back.
Chan is a licensed itinerant hawker. An estimated 46,000 plied their trade after the second world war. Only 304 remained at the end of last year. A ban on the transfer of licences means they will eventually disappear.
The elderly hawker had, apparently, left a younger member of her family to manage her cart while she went to the toilet. She said she then went home as the end of their long working day was approaching. Few people would blame her. She probably needed a rest.
But leaving the cart in the hands of another person, who does not hold a licence, is against the law. Itinerant hawkers, unlike their counterparts with fixed pitches, are not allowed assistants.
While she was away, officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department swooped. Her helper was arrested and the cart and contents seized as evidence. It will now be for the court to establish the facts and apply them to the law.